Hwang Jiwoo (2)
The main gate of Yoobaek City, whose antique design overwhelmed the surrounding scenery.
A total of eight women had gathered there.
All of them were Baek Ajin's friends, who had come for a tour after receiving Yoo Jia's invitation.
Their occupations were all different!
There was a college student, an aspiring player, and even someone preparing to inherit the family business.
"Huh? Jiwoo, you came too?"
One of them said.
Hwang Jiwoo.
"Yeah."
Nod.
"It's a rare opportunity, so of course I had to come."
There were also faces she had not seen in a long time.
She was the kind of friend named Hwang Jiwoo who was only in the group chat and rarely showed up at gatherings.
Apparently, something always hurt with her.
"Your head's not hot today?"
One friend placed the back of her hand on Jiwoo's forehead.
And then—
"Ah, damn, that scared me!"
She jerked her hand away in shock.
"What the heck, why are you so hot?"
".....I have a fever."
"If you look at her, she always seems to have a fever."
Hwang Jiwoo was wearing a mask.
Her face was covered, but birds of a feather flock together for a reason. All of Baek Ajin's friends boasted beauty at its peak.
Then, in front of them—
"Girls, you're here?"
The front gate opened, and Baek Ajin, dressed neatly, greeted them brightly.
"Wow."
"Ajin, you look amazing."
"Is that what you wear to work?"
Baek Ajin had grown more and more as the days passed.
Now, she had become famous enough that even the media constantly mentioned her name.
Naturally, her friends looked at her with eyes full of admiration.
After exchanging light greetings with them, Baek Ajin kindly guided them.
"Today, for the whole day, go anywhere you want to see. You can walk around freely, and you can take pictures too. I even have an apartment key, okay? Unit 1402—I already told them to open it for you."
Yoobaek's state-of-the-art apartment. It was incredibly hot these days.
With the government openly backing Baek Jinwoo, everyone could become owners of 「Yoobaek」's apartments under government cooperation….
And in order to buy and sell apartments here, you first had to secure residency rights in Yoobaek.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that a nation within a nation had been created.
And they could tour a place like that!
"Kya."
"I want to live in an apartment like this….. They say if you go underground, it's connected to the bunker too, right?"
"Ajin, can we see your place too? I heard it's a penthouse."
The place grew noisy.
Her friends were excited to the fullest.
Only one person—
Hwang Jiwoo alone was looking not at the apartment, but toward the training ground.
* * *
Hwang Jiwoo.
She had been sickly since childhood.
Maybe because of her unusual constitution, her average body temperature was far higher than that of normal people, and because of that, she had suffered a lot.
Then, three years ago.
The world changed, and when all humanity experienced the tutorial, she obtained one summon.
Ice Butterfly (E-grade).
It was strange.
The pain that had tormented her so much vanished as if washed away whenever the Ice Butterfly was beside her.
Not any other summon. Only the Ice Butterfly.
Having found hope in that, Hwang Jiwoo began looking into all sorts of things, and as a result—
'I need an ice attribute summon.'
She realized that she was heavily affected by elemental synergy.
In fact, the summons she handled felt much stronger than other summons she could see in videos.
After that, she made up her mind.
She would become a player. But as always, the world was not so easy.
To obtain summons, you had to go into dungeons, and you had to repeatedly clear day-of-the-week dungeons.
Even after doing that for three years, becoming a ranker was out of the question, and even joining a major guild was difficult.
To begin with, those were places only another 0.1% among the top 0.1% could enter.
Unless one of the Five Emperors or a huge-name ranker seriously helped you, the best you could do was sell runes like Baek Ajin had done in the past.
Especially in South Korea, a summoning backwater, that was even more true.
In the end, Hwang Jiwoo became this sort of player—unable to earn proper money, living with her parents, and still suffering anxiously to this day.
Then, at that moment, she heard news about Baek Ajin. So she rushed over immediately.
'There's a chance I might get to meet Baek Jinwoo.'
In the industry, Baek Jinwoo was a legend.
She had heard that the entire national team, the very top among the top tier, had received Baek Jinwoo's guidance.
And every time they appeared in the media, they showered him with praise.
They even said that their skill could be divided into before and after meeting him.
It might be selfish ambition.
The selfish ambition of trying to somehow meet him by using her connection to Baek Ajin.
Even while admitting that to herself, Hwang Jiwoo was desperate enough to come.
But—
"There's just one thing."
Baek Ajin finished with a smile.
"You absolutely can't go near the training ground. My brother is training there….. The CEO also told me to make sure you all follow that. And I'm asking you too, seriously."
Damn it.
Hwang Jiwoo made a tearful face.
* * *
"Haa."
After exercising, Baek Jinwoo lightly rinsed off in the shower room and came out with a sigh.
His mind was filled with only one word.
'Devour, Devour, Devour, Devour...'
If he was going to master it, he had to master it as quickly as possible.
That way, every time he killed a boss-class monster, stacks would accumulate, and he would grow that much stronger.
But then again—
'That's a fake Authority?'
According to the setting, an Ancient Explosive Dragon lay sealed and dormant inside the heart of the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
Explosive Dragon Wave was what awakened even a fraction of that Explosive Dragon's power.
And the Explosive Dragon's Authority was Devour.
'If that Devour is fake….. then just how broken is the real Authority?'
Or was that not it?
Was he approaching it in a completely wrong way?
Maybe it was something like this.
Back in 「Battle of Summoners」, the Explosive Dragon had manifested a fake Authority, and because it was some mutant-level broken ability never part of the original design, it got patched!
'Then.'
It might actually be that the fake Authority was even better than the real Authority.
"Phew."
If that was the case, then he would have to learn the fake Authority. After all, reality did not seem to care one bit about balance anyway.
'Then I need to create a situation where the survival rate is below 10% ...'
For example…..
Would it work if he took only the Explosive Dragon and faced the 40th-floor boss of the Tower of Trials?
No, that would probably make the survival rate approach 0%.
That part was honestly vague too.
Not only did he have no idea who judged the survival rate, but this reality was not a game.
If you lost in a dungeon?
You died on the spot.
That was also one reason why current players' growth rates were not as good as before.
"Ugh, I don't know."
Besides, there was no point in making plans.
If the Explosive DragonSorcerer suddenly declared a strike, everything was over anyway.
'Yeah, let's stop thinking about it.'
He was already strong enough as it was. And there was still a lot of room for growth.
He still had to set up endgame runes for the Explosive Dragon and Gale Slayer too.
He also needed to start aiming for other EX-grade summons.
He had to clear the Tower of Trials too.
And he should slowly start preparing to defeat the raid boss that would appear in Year 5, the Chaos Demon Dragon.
Rub rub rub.
After drying off with a towel, Baek Jinwoo left the training ground.
The summons of his four disciples and his own summons were all mixed together, enduring HunGyo's training.
And over in that corner—
Whoosh!
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer was meditating while raising flames in all directions.
That was when it happened.
[Sudden Quest Triggered!]
[A sudden quest has arrived for 'Explosive Dragon Sorcerer (EX-grade)'!]
[Would you like to open the quest?]
[Y/N]
"Ah, damn, that scared me."
A message had suddenly appeared on the screen!
What was this without even a warning?
A quest from the Explosive Dragon?
'Was there a system like this?'
He had played 「Battle of Summoners」 for ten whole years, but this was the first time he had seen this kind of message.
Maybe it only appeared for S-grade summons and above.
A kind of hidden piece?
—Ummm…..?
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer seemed to feel the strangeness too, because she stopped training and stood up.
'I have to press this.'
A quest had arrived, and he was supposed to press N?
For Baek Jinwoo—and for most players too—that was unthinkable.
"Yes."
Let's go!
What kind of quest is it?
[Sudden Quest!]
[Unlock the Authority of the Ancient Explosive Dragon (S-grade)!]
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer is under extreme stress, wondering whether it can break through the plane of infernal discharge! And near her has appeared a special constitution—Fiery Body!
[Train the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer (EX-grade) beside the bearer of the Fiery Body for 100 days!]
[If separated for more than 1 hour, the duration will reset.]
[Current duration - 0 days, 00:00:00]
"....Fiery Body?"
What is that?
And who is it?
"What the hell is this supposed to be?"
All training came to a halt.
"Why all of a sudden?"
"Did something happen, big brother?"
His disciples tilted their heads and asked, but Baek Jinwoo did not explain.
He simply said,
"Something urgent suddenly came up. Let's postpone training for about three days."
These days, his disciples trained every morning until 3 o'clock.
Only after that did they take care of their own guilds or catch up on delayed work.
"Haven't you all been neglecting your guilds lately anyway?"
Fiery Body, the Authority of the Explosive Dragon, and all that.
It was too complicated to explain to them, and more than anything, even Baek Jinwoo himself did not fully understand it.
"Understood, Master."
"Then I'll come see you next Monday, big brother!"
The disciples withdrew with regretful expressions.
In truth, from their perspective, this training itself was taking care of their guilds.
The more they trained with Baek Jinwoo, the stronger they would become, and all of that would benefit their guilds in the end.
But?
If Baek Jinwoo told them to go, what could they do?
Even if it was disappointing, they had to leave.
—My lord.
HunGyo approached with a questioning look, and the Explosive Dragon walked over too.
Baek Jinwoo shared the quest he had received.
—Fiery Body….. I do have it in my knowledge.
"Oh, really?"
Damn.
HunGyo really was broken.
Ever since becoming EX-grade, he had basically become an encyclopedia of all summons.
—It is similar to the Nine Yin Severed Meridian we saw last time, but different. If the Nine Yin Severed Meridian is a congenital illness caused by overwhelming yin energy blocking the blood vessels, then Fiery Body is a kind of constitution. One may suffer from surging yang energy, but it is a beneficial special constitution that turns the ice attribute from mutual opposition into mutual generation. This too is a rare constitution that may appear only once in a thousand years.
".....Really?"
He did not really understand what that meant, but it meant that someone with such a constitution was nearby, right?
—To think the Fiery Body and the Explosive Dragon must stay together for 100 days….. Rather, this is better than before, my lord.
"Is it better?"
—Is it not ten million times better than risking your life by jumping into a dungeon?
That was true.
"Then how do we find the Fiery Body?"
—Please wait a moment.
HunGyo lowered his head and placed his thumb, index finger, and middle finger against his forehead.
Damn.
Encyclopedia HunGyo!
How could he be this reliable!
At times like this, he really looked like a brainy man skilled in both letters and arms.
But—
—There is no separate method.
"Huh?"
There isn't one?
—However, my lord.
"Yeah?"
—Did you not say that a clock appeared in the quest window as well?
"I did...?"
[Current duration - 0 days, 00:00:00]
It was still floating in his vision even now.
Ah? Ah!
Clap!
Baek Jinwoo clapped his hands.
"So I can just verify it physically?"
He could take the Explosive Dragon around and look for people.
And then, when the dragon got close to someone, if that clock started ticking?
That person would be the Fiery Body!
He had also said it had appeared suddenly, so there was a high chance it was someone in Yoobaek City. And since he said it had popped up abruptly, it probably was not someone who regularly came and went in Yoobaek City.
"Okay."
Baek Jinwoo sprang to his feet.
Let's find them first.
He would think about what came next after finding them.
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